“Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny” by Ted Chiang (collected in “Exhalation: Stories”)

The first story in “Exhalation: Stories” that didn’t blow me away in some fashion. Perhaps the decision to frame this as a museum exhibit’s flavor text robs it of crucial personality, or maybe it’s that “hey, what if I had robots raise my kids, WHAT COULD GO WRONG” has been done enough that anyone can predict where this goes. Chiang’s eye for detail elevates this above most of its peers and there’s a decent turn in the second half that adds much-needed feeling to the proceedings, but I’d not have been heartbroken had this been left out of this anthology.

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